On Monday 25th June the Housing Heroes Awards took place in Manchester, with a glamorous evening to celebrate achievements of the year. Organised by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Inside Housing, these awards recognise and congratulate the individuals and teams who are truly heroes in the housing sector.

Our staff team is hard working, dedicated, and fundamentally good at what they do. We strive to uphold strong principles of diversity and inclusivity, both in our work with service users and in our recruitment, so were delighted to be recognised for this approach with the Inclusive Team of the Year award.

“We are incredibly grateful to the CIH and Inside Housing for this award. We are exceptionally proud of the confidence, life skills and employability our teams facilitate, so are pleased to have this work recognised” Amanda Dubarry, CEO of Caritas Anchor House.

Our staff team has 42 members across six departments, of whom, 10 have overcome homelessness and have now joined the support network that Caritas Anchor House provides. This means that in five of our six departments, at least one staff member has direct experience of homelessness. Each team contributes uniquely to our services, and cumulatively provides a holistic, person – centred support model which enables the amazing results we see year on year. Furthermore, this reflects our core mission of supporting and empowering people to learn, grow and build healthier, more economically independent lives for themselves.

We are dedicated to helping people break the cycle of homelessness, and believe that opportunities for growth and learning are key. Newham has the third highest unemployment rate in London at 8.6%; 41% of the adult population lacks a Level 3 qualification and 11.1% have no qualifications. When asked in our service user survey this year, service users reported that ‘somewhere to live’ followed by ‘help finding employment’, were the two most important things for them at CAH. Thankfully, this same survey revealed that 90% of respondents reported increased employability likelihood since moving into CAH – with easy access to IT and training cited regularly. Many referred to improved self-confidence, linking this to our facilities and encouraging environment. Of those who moved out of CAH last year, 3% were in paid employment upon arrival and 21% when they left.

With our core values of diversity and inclusivity, and our strong drive to improve employability, it’s no surprise that our staff team includes previous and current service users. We hope our approach empowers those who have experienced homelessness in the past to be confident in their employability prospects, and encourages all organisations to put inclusivity at the heart of their staff teams.

Thank you again to both the Chartered Institute of Housing and Inside Housing.